Authorities have launched the id of the sleeping lady burned to demise inside a New York Metropolis subway prepare by a person who allegedly lit her on fireplace and stayed to observe the aftermath, officers stated Tuesday.
The lady recognized within the F prepare assault at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station earlier this month was named Debrina Kawam. She was 61 years outdated and had a final identified tackle in New Jersey. Extra particulars weren’t accessible.
Sebastian Zapeta has been accused by prosecutors of lighting the lady on fireplace, then fanning the flames with a shirt, inflicting her to grow to be engulfed within the blaze, earlier than sitting on platform bench and watching as she burned.
“This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system,” Brooklyn District Lawyer Eric Gonzalez stated after a quick courtroom listening to the place the indictment was introduced final week.
He stated Zapeta has been charged with a number of counts of homicide in addition to an arson cost. The highest cost carries a most sentence of life in jail with out parole. The indictment might be unsealed on Jan. 7.
Zapeta, 33, was not current on the listening to, and his lawyer declined to remark afterward.
Zapeta, who federal immigration officers stated is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, was taken into custody on Sunday. Throughout questioning by police, prosecutors say he claimed to not know what had occurred, noting that he consumes alcohol, however recognized himself in photographs and surveillance video displaying the fireplace being lit.
A prayer vigil was held by a Coney Island neighborhood for a homeless lady who was set on fireplace and burned to demise on the F prepare, as her attacker allegedly sat by and watched it occur. NBC New York’s Chris Jose stories.
The harrowing episode has renewed dialogue about security within the nation’s largest mass transit system.
General, crime within the subway is comparatively uncommon, with trains and platforms typically as protected as every other public place in New York Metropolis. Police information reveals main crimes had been down this 12 months by means of November, in comparison with the identical interval in 2023.
However homicides had been up, with 9 killings by means of November versus 5 throughout the identical timeframe final 12 months. That determine doesn’t embody the lady who was burned to demise, nor a person who was fatally stabbed at a Queens subway station the identical day.
Excessive-profile assaults corresponding to stabbings and shovings additionally put many riders on edge in a metropolis the place thousands and thousands trip the rails day-after-day.
